by Ashley Ederington – Miss May 2013

This month on Arkansas Women Bloggers we are celebrating women who inspire us.  I have had a very special woman in my heart for quite some time, Mother Earth.  I am not going to scare you with horrible statistics regarding global pollution and climate change, you can Google those for yourself.  Every person, on every continent, is connected by our common need for natural resources.  Mother Earth is trying very hard to compensate for our reckless living and provide for us, but she is starting to show signs of wear and tear.

Numerous websites provide step-by-step ways to reduce your carbon footprint, but let’s be realistic, not all of us have the cash on hand to spend thousands of dollars retrofitting our homes with gray water recycling systems and huge solar panels.  Instead of feeling overwhelmed by the enormity of these projects and giving up all together, here are three simple changes you can make to help Mother Earth.  These solutions can be implemented with very little effort and will even save you a few dollars.

Reduce Your Food Miles

This may not be something you have considered.  When you purchase a fresh ear of corn in December that was grown in Central America, you have to take into account the fossil fuels it took to ship that crop to Arkansas.  One solution is to purchase organically grown, frozen or in-season vegetables.  Another solution is to shop at the local farmers market and stimulate your local economy at the same time!  Even if you don’t have the room to grow a garden, you can purchase in-season vegetables and freeze or can them yourself for winter usage.  There is a little more work involved, but your mason jar will not have a list of chemical preservatives taped to the back.

Reduce Your Water Usage

I know we have heard this a million times and I don’t want to sound like a beating drum in the background, but conserving water is terribly important.  Technically, fresh water is a renewable resource, but only 3% of the Earth’s water is fresh and most of it is frozen in the polar ice caps.  Our fresh water supply is quickly being depleted and polluted.  Not trying to sound apocalyptic, but when fresh water runs out, we all die.  There are hundreds of things you can do to reduce your water usage and a few are the easiest are: shave 3 minutes off your shower time; only wash your car once a month; run the dishwasher and washing machine only when they are full; and plant drought tolerant landscaping in your yard.

Reduce Your Consumerism

We are bombarded everyday with advertisements of the latest and greatest products.  If you watch television for 30 minutes, I bet you will be able to find ten things you didn’t know you needed.  It is hard to not want a purse in the season’s hottest color or the newest smart phone, but every item produced in excess has an adverse affect on Mother Earth.  Those huge factories in China may not be billowing smog in our backyards, but their products are overflowing our landfills.  Replace things you use everyday because they are broken or worn out, not because you found a new sparkly version.  Remember: waste not, want not.

You may not feel like you can save the world by making these changes, but we are like the millions of pixels on the computer screen you are looking at, as small pixels stop working, the screen will lose its brightness and luster until it’s not visible at all.  Mother Earth will notice if one of her children is working, and we will all benefit.